Got to the parking lot around 5:30pm on Friday. Hit the North Fork Skykomish Trail, at 6mi in there is a large camp, I called it a night there. The next site is 2.5mi 1400'+ further, wish I had known might have made the push. Got up at 6:30am, rallied up to Dishpan Gap, to the Bald Eagle trail that first view of Glacier Peak is sublime and stopped me in my tracks. Veered to the north to take the High Route to Blue Lake, biggest marmot I have ever seen up there. Highly recommend the high route, but do it early or late, it would be hot midday, it was a 5mi water carry from Camp to Lake.

Dropped to Blue for lunch, enjoyed watching some anglers hooking up on rainbows so I didn't have to. Played a quick game of sudoku while snacking and taking in the views. Bugged out around 11am, the climb back up Pilot Ridge trail was was hot, exposed, and after the high route I was feeling it. In hindsight I should have topped off at Sloan creek, last water source for 4mi and that climb had me sweating.

Back up on Bald Eagle I ran into a hiker who asked for assistance. He got turned around looking for North Fork Sauk, got him pointed in the right direction. Then just ran the ridge through giant meadows for the rest of the day, 4 or 5 good camp sites up there, descended to Curry Gap and onto the Quartz Creek trail. About a third of the way down that is an awesome waterfall and pool. I was back at the car at 5:30pm. Clocked 24.4 mi, 24hr, 5161'+/-, peaked at 6319', Govee hit 92° in the bag moving, it was a scorcher. No bugs, no dew, only got down to 58° at night. The smoke got worse as the day went on. The trail is in great shape, lots of recent work done, much appreciated! 

Been wanting to visit Lake Sally Ann for a long time and finally did it as an overnight from the North Fork Skykomish River trailhead. Now is a good time to visit if you prefer quiet/solitude, as there is a fire closure on the Pacific Crest Trail north of Dishpan Gap (at Mica Lake), as well as a few trail closures just east of the PCT (Little Wenatchee, Cady Ridge, etc), due to the Shoofly Fire, making Sally Ann rather inaccessible from the east.

Both the NF Skykomish trail and Pass Creek trail are relatively untraveled, and we didn't see another person on our way up on either. The Skykomish River crossing was straightforward with a few options, either rock-hopping, log-scooting, or wading in mid-calf deep water. We saw an American Goshawk near the river crossing.

At the camp where Pass Creek adjoins the PCT, there were a lot of obnoxious biting flies but we managed to have a nice lunch regardless, and met a fellow who would be the only PCT thru-hiker we encountered the entire trip, heading south after hiking the section until the northern fire closure.

The switchbacks up to the ridge from Cady Pass were very hot but mostly shaded in the forest until it opens up into a mixture of smaller trees and beautiful meadows with views. Here is where we ran into legendary guidebook author Craig Romano who was trail-running a large loop in the area with a pal! (They were the only folks we met on this section of trail).

We arrived at Sally Ann around 4pm and found one group already there, who were friendly and fairly quiet neighbors for our afternoon/night at the lake. We took a dip in the lake—COLD, but not the coldest alpine lake I've swam in! Pikas scurried around the talus slope behind the lake while we swam. I really enjoyed our campsite which had partial views of both the lake as well as ridges/mountains to the northeast. There was a little bit of haze/smoke visible in the distance toward the Shoofly Fire but nothing too dramatic. The skeeters were out—it didn't seem like there were a ton of them but somehow I ended up with bites all over my legs anyway!

In the morning we sipped our coffee while admiring the mountain view and the local birds. I spied a pair of Pine Grosbeaks preening in a subalpine fir just below camp.

Around 9am we set out northward, taking our time and enjoying the views and encountering no one at all—pretty shocking for the PCT! There are a couple of small springs to refill water here and there, though no water at Dishpan Gap. Here we veered left on North Fork Skykomish River trail, which gently descends for a bit, and eventually you start to see water trickling and then flowing downstream. The trail was in great shape and clearly had some recent work done on it. I really enjoyed the flat section with a million blueberry bushes with ripe berries. The first other people we saw all day were two other backpackers coming down from Blue Lake, who caught up with us while we were taking a lunch break at the camp by the second NF Skykomish River crossing (about 5 miles from the trailhead). The rest of the trail down was hot and fairly uneventful, passing through a beautiful forest with many small stream crossings (and lots of frogs!)

Happy hiking!

Overnight to Dishpan Gap via the North Fork Skykomish. Got solitude with a view of Glacier Peak. Paid for with a road walk, dry conditions, and bugs.

Road 63: washed out just before the Blanca TH. We parked along with hundreds of other cars, all of which were for Blanca Lake. This adds 2.75 miles and 600' gain to the North Fork Skykomish trailhead, not 4.5 miles as stated in the trail description here.

Trail: mostly good conditions. The river crossing was easy with sandals. Blowdowns reported a couple of years ago have mostly been cleared.At the riverside campsite, watch out for a huge blowdown that obliterated the first switchback where the climb starts. Go left to pick up the trail.

Water: a concern. Water conditions are more like what would be expected in late summer. Dishpan Gap and the surrounding ridges are dry but for a few stagnant barely trickles. The last place to fill up is in the meadow at 5150' where a stream crosses the trail. Don't expect water between here and Lake Sally Ann or Blue Lake.

Views and solitude: splendid. We camped along the PCT a little north of Dishpan Gap. Met a party of trail runners on their way down and a few southbound PCTers near Dishpan, otherwise we were alone in this spectacular place.

Left the North Fork Skykomish TH Thursday, 8/14. Stayed at a campsite about 3/4 mile (5000 ft level) from Dishpan Gap w/water available 200 yds up the trail. The trail is in great shape. Passed the Gap the next morning and took the long way, via Bald Eagle Trail and Pilot Ridge Trail, to campsite at Lower Blue Lake.  We had to get past a few deadfalls on the trail, but not too difficult. There are no sites at the lake itself. Fish were jumping in huge numbers. Stayed at a decent site with water available at flowing tarn downstream from the lake. My buddy side tripped up to Blue Lake and reported good campsites and a brand new sit down toilet right next to the main trail. Backtracked next morning to the Gap and followed PCT to Lake Sally Ann, clearly a popular stopping point for PCT hikers. Very busy! Lots of sites and a sit down toilet with a spectacular view. Smoke came in strong overnight from the White River/Irving Peak fires, so we scrapped our plans to go to Benchmark Mountain and came back out a day early via Pass Creek Trail. There is a sign indicating a toilet at the Pass Creek/PCT intersection and good campsites. The trail is in great shape all the way to the NF Sky River ford, where we opted to put on water shoes to cross. Right where the Pass Creek trail crosses an easy ford over Pass Creek, there is a good campsite next to the creek, including a swimming hole just downstream.

Biting bugs were intermittently plentiful, including deer flies, the little biting flies and mosquitoes. Bugs stay away from my hiking partner, but they love me. I had pretty good repellant success with consistent applications of Herbal Armor. Also, the clothes I wore that were treated with permethrin seemed to work pretty well.   

I did a three day trip, taking the Pass Creek trail up to the PCT, then north and backdown the North Fork Skykomish trail to make a nice loop.  Here are some particulars.

Road Conditions to the North Fork Skykomish river trailhead: Beckler River road (FS65) up and over Jacks pass was fine.  The last 4-5 miles along FS63 were also ok with the exception of a few large potholes and navigation over a previously washed out bridge that was recently repaired and looks to have had another washout, that has been temporarily repaired to allow some vehicle traffic.  I would be somewhat reluctant to take an average low clearance sedan over this; however I did see a Ford Fusion parked at the TH when I arrived, so try at your discretion.

Bugs: The usual nuisance for the summer with the mosquitos being quite bad at the TH, the first mile or two of the North Fork Skykomish river trail and up on the PCT.  When the breeze was blowing you were fine; when it stopped, it was quite bad if you did not have repellent on or weren’t covered up.

Trail Conditions:  Pass creek trail was in good shape from the bottom to the top.  Fording the two streams at the beginning were not bad with the water being only ankle deep at mid-morning.  The trail also had no blowdowns or other obstacles to navigate.  Once on the PCT, it lived up to its normal good conditions.  Many thru-hikers on this section, both northbound and southbound.  I camped at Lake SallyAnn which was snow free and had quite a few campspots to choose from.  The general camping area around the lake was also in better condition than I had expected.  

Day two took me up to Dishpan gap to stash my pack and continue on for a quick trek north to the top of Kodak peak.  There is a boot trail going up the east spine of the peak that starts where the PCT makes a loop around its east end.  The snow is mostly melted out which made the trek up straightforward with the top providing wonderful views of Glacier Peak and all around.  This section of the PCT that I was on is beautiful from Cady Pass to Dishpan gap.  After returning to pick up my pack, I traveled down the North Fork Skykomish river trail to camp at the confluence of two rivers (about 4 miles down trail).  This trail in general had a fair amount of debris on it as this trail probably doesn’t see much use.  A crew has been on it recently with many blowdowns removed and some brush trimmed down in the heaviest places.  Very thankful for the hardwork with all of the recent tree's to remove. It is a beautiful trail with varied terrain types throughout its length.  The only downside is the rather steep decent that occurs in the first few miles leading down from the PCT.  One thing not to miss is the waterfalls that is near the camp where two rivers meet which is where I spent night two.  One river is to the left of the camp when approaching from the PCT (south side), while the other is to the right.  If you walk over to the southern stream and look upstream, there is a beautiful and rather large waterfall.  I imagine it will lesson somewhat as summer wears on.

All in all, a great little loop that takes in one of the nice sections of the PCT.